COLOMBO, March 9: Sri Lanka on Monday rejected reports that neighbouring India might have been involved in the terrorist attack against the island’s national cricket team in Lahore.

Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama said Pakistan had promised an interim report on last Tuesday’s the assault.

“From our point of view, there is no Indian involvement,” he said in response to media speculation that New Delhi had links to the ambush. “India has helped us in our counter-terrorist efforts.

“I don’t see a need for India to target the Sri Lankan cricket team,” Mr Bogollagama said.

Media reports had speculated that India’s external intelligence agency might have had a hand in the Lahore attacks in a tit-for-tat retaliation for the November siege in Mumbai.

Sri Lanka, which has been battling the separatist group Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) since 1972, remains deeply suspicious that the rebels may have had a hand in the attacks.

“We are not ruling out links with the LTTE. The LTTE are known to have links with international terrorist groups.”—AFP
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